Aftermaths of a confession
by eternalshiva
Summary: thoughts of a young woman who confessed, and she still waits for a reply that may or may not come.


_Disclaimer:_ I do not own Naruto

A/N – slinks into the fandom, drops a fic, slinks back to ASCIP and tries to update it, (I'm so sorry, I totally lost interest in NH but after 700 it was sparked back into life)

She was so tired.

The soft murmurs of the night disturbed the tranquil flow of her thoughts; she focused on the moon high above their camp momentarily before sighing and giving up on the idea of catching the elusive sheep of sleep. The cooler air nipped at the skin of her cheeks. She could barely see the twinkle of the stars before she closed her eyes and once again, tried to convince her exerted body that she needed to sleep – the next morning would bring more soreness, more exhaustion.

She shifted in her sleeping bag, trying to find some sort of niche of comfort that would instantly knock her into dreamland but the grass could only offer so much comfort. The village's destruction had left little to no homes standing. Yamato had been completely abused by the villagers with a few words of flattery. '_He was easily tricked by them'_, she thought with a smile. Nevertheless, she had decided to refrain from residing in the new homes tortured out of Naruto's sensei - she gave up her rooms for the branch children and opted to camp out with Shino while Kiba was out on _that_ mission.

She felt a pang of worry squeeze inside of her. The whole thing with Sasuke felt completely... _sticky_. She was torn, really, as to what to do. They had all invested so much to help Naruto retrieve Sasuke and to suddenly decide to kill one of their own...

She didn't want to, really, honestly, but it was _messy_. All and all, killing Sasuke was the _best_ option as Shikamaru stated, he was with Akatsuki... right? Well the last intelligence stated that he was... even if he had left them... would that really change anything? Nevermind the fact that they wants to take Naruto from them, from _her_ to be more precise, and extract the Kyuubi from within- which would inevitably _kill_ him.

Unacceptable.

She stared up at the moon defiantly, fighting some unknown battle within her mind fuelled by her resolve, it was shouting out silently in a challenge that would never be accepted by the large white formation. She let her gaze drop from the surface of the rocky glow and focused on the stars.

The means... the means to get the end here were definitely _unpleasant_ if she dared say so. They all had suffered greatly to aid Naruto in rescuing the Uchiha and now... now Sasuke had betrayed not only him, but _all_ of them.

Akasuki was the enemy, making Sasuke Konoha's threat; the rock village was bent on revenge because of Sasuke's actions of capturing their bijuu. Shikamaru was right in his logic - the circle of hate must stay within the village to prevent a full scale war against other villages. Convincing them to refrain from capturing Sasuke was a difficult task, from what she understood... the leader of the Rock Village was stubborn – then again, so was Naruto.

It was pure logic, there was no flaw in this thinking, nor was she wrong to agree with it... right?

Then... then why was it... that she _felt_ like the traitor? Hinata glanced at the moon with her questions, only to find the cold and accusatory glow unbearable. She looked away again and focused on some invisible spot in the darkness; it wasn't really a question... she could see the answer quite clearly as to why it felt _wrong_ - deep down she knew that killing Sasuke, was like killing Naruto. She squeezed her eyes shut; trying to keep her confusion at bay but it was useless.

_'This is so complicated.' _she sighed, pressing her lips together. She shifted again, pulling the covers of the sleeping bag up to her chin and pushed away the darker thoughts; she let her mind wander and selfishly indulged in the memories of her soft bed, ignoring the imbedded pebbles digging at her back. She'd kill a small animal for a shelter, maybe a wall or heck, even a roof. She pinched her brow, discontent with her line of thinking. This wasn't becoming of her, she shouldn't wish for material things – she was alive, the village was alive and she was safe, thanks to Naruto and Sakura.

She opened her eyes again, her heart squeezing with a pang of longing as the image of the boy invaded her mind, once more. Every night he'd drift in, she'd shamelessly let him take over her – she didn't mind, far from it. Every secret she held deep in her heart she'd whisper to him during that time, every fantasy she'd boldly tell without a stutter or a blush. She'd let him take a piece of her heart, an irreplaceable part of her soul and he'd leave without remorse in the mornings.

"Hinata, you need to sleep." Shino eyed her from his post, startling her. She flicked her gaze towards him and pursed her lips in rebellion before curling up in her sleeping bag, staring at the camp fire. It was just the two of them, for now. Kiba would be back soon with some news on how things went between Naruto and Sakura.

The fire flickered, snaps and crackles distracted her - everything the light touched eerily glowed orange and red. She smiled, just a little at the reminder, the colours gave her comfort under normal circumstances but lately... lately she wasn't so sure anymore. She was a little afraid of what he would say, someday.

She had avoided him like the plague after she recovered. She was so embarrassed – confessing in front of an enemy and knowing full well she was about to die. Not the brightest idea she had come up with, nor was it as romantic as all the other scenarios she had practiced in her room for years. But, at the time, she had been fine with knowing he'd be aware of her feelings while she kissed the sweet embrace of death.

Then reality hit her like a bucket of ice water when Sakura pulled her back to life kicking and screaming... never in her life had she been so desperate to cling to the cold fingers of the reaper and refuse a healing. Sakura had chided her too... completely humiliated...

At least no one knew that she had confessed. The only witness was _dead_, thankfully.

She blushed, hard – that thought was a little dark, even for her. Then again, she would have never lived it down if someone from their group had heard such an embarrassing thing from her. She was a sensitive girl, after all.

"You should move further back from the fire, Hinata – your face is all red." Shino startled her again and this time she puffed her cheeks in irritation. Why was he watching her so much?

Why was she so irritable?

_'Exhaustion.'_ It was the only thing she could think of that would make her so unreasonable. She sighed and burrowed herself deeper into the sleeping bag.

Sleep – she had to sleep _'One, two, three, four...'_

Blond hair fluttered across her closed eyes, she smiled secretively, hid it from the all seeing eyes of Shino and before she knew it, she let Naruto into her dreams and drifted off to sleep, wondering if her words had any effect on him.


End file.
